It is well known in the art that security is a primary consideration prerequisite for the peaceful enjoyment of the fruits of freedom and the survival of individuals and organized bodies alike. For example, to promote security, it is imperative to keep doors and windows locked at home, to keep automobiles locked and secured by alarms, and, generally, to be aware of one's surroundings while walking on streets, driving in automobiles or the like, and shopping in malls or in stores. Also, to promote security for commercial establishments, and public places such as libraries, courthouses and government buildings, it is imperative to provide full-time guards, limited access via X-ray machines or biometrics screening devices, etc.
Devices and methods for the promotion of safety and security of persons and property are well known in the art. The most common of these devices may be those used to protect homes and automobiles. The more basic of these monitor the opening of doors and sound an alarm if the device has not been disabled. While there has been little advance in home security devices, automotive security devices have undergone significant improvements from the conventional automobile alarm in recent years to match the rise in the value of these vehicles.
A recent development related to automobile security is the incorporation of vehicle tracking systems like the LOJACK® which utilizes a transmitter installed in the vehicle to emit radio waves to a receiver tuned to a given frequency receivable by the police for tracking. An improvement on this takes advantage of the Global Positioning System (GPS) to provide location information of the automobile and furthermore enables the appropriate security personnel to provide personal security in the form of a panic button in case of an emergency. Yet another improvement on vehicle tracking systems is the On-Guard tracking system or its equivalent. This device utilizes GPS and cellular technology to provide vehicle location, speed and direction to a central monitoring station. On-Guard also offers several non-emergency related services including navigational and roadside assistance services.
Further advances in automotive related security systems are such that are disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,430,432 teaching of a device that monitors a vehicle for unsafe driver conditions and provides real-time warning, and if uncorrected, makes a record of the occurrence.
Devices used to monitor people, as opposed to vehicles, are also well known. Perhaps the most familiar application of such a device pertains to the concept of house arrest. Typical house arrest devices operate by detecting when the subject, who is wearing a transmitter, moves too far from a receiver located in his or her home or other place of detainment. If the receiver does not receive the transmitted signal or receives a signal significantly attenuated due to the distance between the receiver and the transmitter, an auto-dialer is triggered to alert the proper authorities. Such a device used to track people offers many practical and useful applications beyond the monitoring of criminals. Children, Alzheimer patients, the mentally retarded, the disabled, infirm individuals, and other similarly situated persons may be monitored and located should they become lost.
Personal security devices are also well known. The most common personal security device is the small container with a panic button, implemented via pull cord, grenade-type ring, or other means easily actuated but difficult to reset. When the panic button is actuated, a loud sound is emitted to scare off attackers and or alert nearby people to a potential emergency. Another personal security device, well known for its advertising with an elderly person who has fallen and can't get up, uses a necklace worn panic button and auto-dialer. These devices operate by requiring the user to actuate the panic button in the event of an emergency, thereby initiating the auto-dialer which contacts the appropriate authorities and delivers a prerecorded message.
Medical monitoring devices are also well known. They are used in clinics, hospitals, and doctors' offices around the world. They often are able to give early warning to medical professionals of impending adverse health conditions, where the individual does not even sense the decline until significantly later, after the situation has significantly progressed, the individual suddenly feeling terrible, debilitated, or worse. Many times, the relaxed and controlled hospital environment can reduce or eliminate the sources of adverse health conditions, such as exertion, stress, noise, toxins, diet, etc. Accordingly, more sophisticated medical monitoring devices have been developed which are miniaturized, battery-operated versions of hospital equipment for home or ambulatory use, such as electroencephalogram (EEG) machines, electrocardiogram (EKG) machines, blood pressure, sugar, or oxygen saturation monitors, and the like. While these portable machines monitor vital body functions in a real world situation, they merely record this information. The most sophisticated known variants of these devices can take the recorded information, digitize it, and then modulate the information back onto an analog carrier signal, which can then be transmitted to a central station via simple acoustic coupler modem.
Prior art teaches of security systems to enable access of an individual to a protected area like a car. The Aslanidis et al. patent, U.S. Pat. No. 6,690,259, teaches a security system to enable authenticated access of an individual to a protected area, using a remote control unit with a transponder, carried by the individual, which transmits identification code group on reception of an interrogation signal. Access to a protected area is granted only on positive verification of the right to access.
Prior art also teaches a system for security and auditing of persons or property. U.S. Pat. No. 5,825,283 discloses a device that tracks the location of a subject, be it person or object, and compares the actual location with predefined or stored geographical boundaries representing locations that are less than safe or secure, and alerts the device user or other designated personnel that the tracked subject has gone outside its geographical boundaries.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,690,259 discloses a security system to enable authenticated access of an individual to a protected area, including a remote control unit with a transponder, carried by the individual, which transmits an identification code group on reception of an interrogation signal. Access to a protected area will only be permitted on positive verification of the right to access.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,745,036, prior art also teaches an electronic article security system and anti-theft device for stores that uses intelligent tags, surveillance cameras and transaction data to protect products within a security area or detection zone.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,735,695 discloses a biometrics security method and apparatus that restricts the ability of a user to access a device or facility using a portion of biometric data to validate the user's identity.
Needless to say, the safety and security of people and things continues to be of paramount importance in society, especially in light of new dangers posed by terrorist threats. As the foregoing clearly shows, the safety and security industry has responded with increasingly innovative ideas for dealing with new and old challenges. Prior art has taken advantage of various technological advances in the GPS field, cellular technology, computer technology, radio-wave technology and a host of others to improve our ability to provide more effective security devices, methods and processes. Collectively, prior art includes strong solutions for securing people and things, tracking locations, as well as recording and transmitting information of a given subject or location. But there are limitations.
Today, the typical security access process validates the rights of a person or thing at the door, gate or point of entry. This validation occurs in many ways including visual acknowledgement of a subject's access rights against, say, an access card. This access card/badge may or may not have the photograph of the individual on it. Oftentimes, validation is simply against pre-encoded information that is electronically read from the user's access card/badge or security tag. In either case, the user's rights are predetermined and are based on very basic information collected and stored at some earlier point in time. More sophisticated security access processes incorporate biometric data or other unique characteristics of the subject into the validation process. Although they can be very robust, these types of processes offer limited security because the information, like a drug test result or safety clearance, about the bearer of the access card/badge or security tag may become stale rather quickly. Additionally, the card/badge or tag and related data may become compromised, resulting in access to the wrong person or thing. Besides, the existing solutions do not adequately deal with the situation where the subject has compromised or found a way to bypass the security at the entry point. In addition to the typical lack of currency in the validation data, the data and related process are typically isolated within the defined location. The existing solutions offer incomplete data exchange and fixed security entry points incapable of responding to the ever-changing real life situation and stimulus. Therefore, redundancy and limited integration abound within the safety and security establishment, and there is great difficulty in assessing and understanding the level of security risk a person or thing poses to the collective.
What is needed in the art is a more robust safety and security system that is integrated and flexible, that not only allows for authentication of people or things at a point of entry, but is also mobile and capable of providing real-time information about the subject to safety and security officials. Accordingly, these limitations and disadvantages of the prior art are overcome with the present invention.